[23] Primal Scream, ‘Kill All Hippies’

Preposterous figure he may be with his revolutionary insurrectionary squealing-like-a-stuck-pig-onary warrior shtick, but Bobby Gillespie has fronted up with some scorching records – and this mid-latter-period unexpected high belongs in the box seat of the SCRM PNTHN. That’s “pantheon”.

Obviously ‘Kill All Hippies’ is a touch on the rich side coming from Flower Power Bob. Let’s cut him some slack, because the noisenik iteration of Primal Scream is utterly convincing, from the chest-bursting intro excitement of this, through the rage of Accelerator to all the rest of XTRMNTR’s white noise/free jazz/techno metal assault. Nothing, though, is quite the disguised pop song ‘Kill All Hippies’ is. We like pop in all its guises, dis- or otherwise.

Junior says: “I know this; this is the one with the man with the green eye and the girl with the white dog,” which, as far as Gillespie descriptions go, is a new one on me, but it’ll do.

Best bit: The fuzzing, squalling plastic guitar riff that boosts the pulse just after the opening message.